1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for distributing powdered particles from a single transporting vessel to a plurality of receiving ends. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for continuously distributing the powdered particles such as pulverized coal, refining agent and so forth from a single transporting vessel to a plurality of receiving ends such as tuyeres of a high pressure blast furnace without using a distributor or mechanical discharge device at any desired discharging rate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
According to a conventional method and apparatus for continuously supplying materials such as pulverized coal or powdered particles to a plurality of receiving ends disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 29684/76 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,351 and West German Pat. No. 2,243,439), two or more batch tanks installed in parallel are alternatively used and a distributor is further installed to supply the materials into tuyeres. To put the above method into practice, however, facilities of large scale are required, and wide installation areas are needed accordingly, resulting in complicated pipe line systems. Furthermore, the fatal defect is that it is not allowed to individually control the discharging rate of the powdered particles in each of transporting pipes.
An example of a dispatching transportation system of the serially arranged type has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,230,016. According to this system, a distributor consists of an inverted conical hopper having double cones with blow pipes connected to a lower chamber. Therefore, the fabrication of vessel structure tends to become complicated. Further, since the lower portion of the vessel is down-stream type for discharging the materials, discharge nozzles having a relatively small diameter must be equipped with for the powdered particles having strong adhesive force (powdered particles exhibit stronger adhesive force as the particle becomes finer to prevent floodability that will take place intermittently). However, chocking or plugging inevitably occurs in the discharge nozzles as the diameter becomes smaller. In other words, it is difficult to prevent both phenomena of floodability and plugging, simultaneously. Namely, the above system is not applicable for transporting powdered particles having poor flowability. That is, the powdered particles cannot be selectively used for wide range of applications.